2nd Day of Christmas

I had to laugh when I saw this jpg on google. December 26th, has never been quite like that, at least not around here. December 26th is a hectic day, it’s Boxing Day!

Some people retailers just can’t get enough, so it’s now commonly referred to as Boxing Week! We need this holiday in case we didn’t purchase enough items before December 24th.

Christmas isn’t over yet, it is only the second day of Christmas, and if you haven’t recieved a pair of turtle doves, don’t worry. The turtle dove population has apparently decreased and they spend their winters in southern Africa, so please be forgiving towards your true love if you don’t recieve a pair this year, maybe he or she will be more responsible and plan ahead for Christmas 2014.

I was secretly relieved that the commercial part of Christmas was over. It was an exhausting month which involved working Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and today, Boxing Day. I spent these three days focusing more on getting through my shifts rather than focusing on the symbolic arrival of our Lord and Saviour. I was feeling extremely guilty about not having made enough time for God during these holy days. I fell asleep in bed with my advent devotional clenched in my hands.

I woke up the next morning feeling angry with myself, how is it possible to not have time during Christmas Eve to squeeze in a service (I went to sleep instead) or worship him on Christmas Day (I worked a 12 hour shift, came home and fell asleep again). As I was busy worrying and internally freaking out, I suddenly felt a sense of peace come over me. I can’t say for sure it was the Holy Spirit or just me convincing myself, but I realized that God doesn’t work around liturgical calendars and man made holidays.

God is our same loving, caring, forgiving and attentively listening God all year round. He doesn’t have 24 hours in a day or 7 days in a week. The calendar was invented for us to be able to keep ourselves organized. Our Holy Days are designed to prevent us from forgetting all that we know about God; a way to remember all He has done and will continue to do.

We worship a God who is nothing like we are; He doesn’t need a liturgical calendar to remember us. Nothing distracts Him from His ultimate pleasure of caring for us and being in communion with his creation. He doesn’t have certain times of year where He pays more attention to us and then puts us on the back burner until the next liturgical cultural quasi-religious holiday.

If you didn’t quite make it through all of Advent, that’s o.k. If you didn’t make it to church on Christmas Eve, that’s o.k. as well. If your turkey turned out dry and your mashed potatoes were lumpy, that’s all right with God. Our Father doesn’t want our holiday worship, He wants our everyday worship; the love, attention and worship that we offer on a daily basis.

If you weren’t attentive to your holiday observances this season, there is still the rest of the year for continued worship. As we make our way through the next 10 days of Christmas, I pray that you also will feel a sense of peace in knowing that God is always with us, loving on us and never keeping score. Praise be to God!